NS2 vs the world.

[Gustavo]

Well today I happened to go to a store where I had literally side by side a Motif XF, a KRONOS, an OASYS, a KORG SV-1, KORG M50, KORG Trident (yea THAT Trident), Kawai Mp10, Roland Juno Stage and a Nord Stage 2 88.

The NS2 for my taste has the best keybed for playing pianos, it is in some way similar to my Kawai RX-1. It is not hard, some may say it even has little resistance, but I found it very responsive. Of them all I found that to be the most inspiring keybed due to the easyness of playing (you are not fighting the action). The only keybed I found better was the Mp-10´s, which seems to have a full piano mechanism inside. Downside is that the thing is damn big and heavy, sort of the Big Yamaha CP keyboards.

I tried out the organ on all other ones, and I found none of them to be as good. I think that the Korg´s CX3 engine on the OASYS and KRONOs was definitely great. But it sounded too "bright" for me. At least on the presets. But that means that to get a very realistic B3 you have to do some editing, which does not happen on the NS2, you got a great organ from the start.

The biggest surprise to me was the Trident. I did not expect to ever see one in person. Let alone play one. It was not fully functional but the "String" section worked. And it worked wonders. It was sort of "leaking" in sound, but it was so damn good. I just cannot describe it.

Then the OASYS. That is true HD sound. You can just hear the difference in the AD converters, they are simply top of the line, pristine. But to my surprise the M50 actually DOES sound like an OASYS!! sure the OASYS does things the M50 can´t, but even some presets are almost the same, which makes it sound even closer. In spite of the OASYS being better looking the real beast seemed to be the KRONOS, I think it was truly a step ahead for KORG. I cannot say the sound is better, but boy it does sound good. Some of the orchestral patches and acoustics are simply wonderful. The Pianos I think do rival the Nord´s, but the C2 engine is better than the CX3. And the rhodes, I do not know why people say that Nords are not good. to my ears, they are equal. But I felt that the SV-1 was definitely inferior in every aspect, even EPs. Maybe it was just the keybed.

Then came the Motif XF. After the very logical and easy approach of the Korgs, I found the Motif to be even cryptical at times and I struggled a bit to actually get it to do what I wanted. On the User interface side, this is probably the worst of the top keyboards (well, I have not tried Kurzweil). Compared to even the Nords one velocity layer samples, I found the sound to be somewhat of inferior quality. I do not know if that is linked to the fact that it was the 61 key version, but the NS2 felt of higher quality overall. I know everybody praised the Yamahas for their acoustic sounds but now adays I think Korg is definitely ahead in every single aspect. Specially the full orchestral sounds, I found the Motif ones to be uninspiring. Maybe I was expecting too much and got disappointed. NS2 has better pianos. Way better.

Afterwards, I tried the Juno Stage.. Man such a different league! it feels so cheap, the sounds are very GENERAL-MIDI like compared to the top notch workstations. I have seen people try to compare that one to the Nord Stage, specially because fo the price difference. But the Juno is IMO extremely inferior to the NS2. only good things about it is the audio routing possibilites, which do work and seems like its going to be useful to someone.

Then I tried the Kawai MP-10. The piano and EP sounds were fantastic, they definitely impressed me. It has a very limited sonic range, but the few sounds it has are extremely good. Just like the Nord Stage.

So that´s my story. If you have any specific questions as to how what compares to what feel free to ask them. I hope that after spending 1 hr on each, I can answer any doubt.

[Johannes]

Seems like a very fun afternoon you spent there, great and very detailed description! And I was a bit surprised you saw an OASYS in a store, but nice!
I agree the Kawai is awesome for Piano (Really like the MP8, a bit less the II version, and have not yet touched the MP10 though). Well its wood Plus the Grands are fantastic, but its not exactly the lightest of the Stage Pianos...Yo you did not like the Juno STAGE? Have you tried the Juno D or Di?? But its a different league I agree but also different market segment. A KURZ might have completed this already very impressive play-around, but one question comes to mind: Did you experience any GAS Maybe getting a Kronos for your M50?? Anyway, love those Music stores, but hardly ever spend such an amount of trying out all of them at once, so kudos!!

[Gustavo]

Trust me, I had the time of my life. This was actually over 2 days because I leave school at 12 and they close at 18, so since I spent so much time with each keyboard I had to go back another day. But the guy Steff was really nice, very cool person. We started talking keyboards and all of the sudden he goes: "you know we have an OASYS, its in this special room no one is allowed to enter." There was a Prophet V I played, but it was not in optimal conditions. An Oberheim 4-voice, a Polymoog, an unnamed Korg that sounded very weird, the Trident and the OASYS. Oh and they had a PPG in its original box as well as a SC Prophet 600 in its box. No one knows if those two are functional because they do not dare opening the boxes!!



Well the Juno Stage was ok. The piano sound was good, but somewhat not realistic. It seemed more of a "perfect, ideal" piano to me than a real one. To me, everything was ok. It has some cool features (MIC in, midi/sound player from USB stick) but somehow it just did not stand out sonically like the M50 did to me. In my opinion the best budget keyboard is still the M50, even after MOX´s arrival. I think that the pianos are better on the MOX, but the M50 is so much better at the UI, synth, COMBI, editing and the brass/orchestral sounds of the M50 are not that far behind.



Well I did experience GAS, I bought a Kaossilator 2 and a Monotribe. I tried out both, and the KO2 was simply too much fun (although is just good for dance music, but very good) and the monotribe has a huge beautiful sound.But buying those was more of an impulse and a "thank you" for letting me be there for like 9 hours! I also wanted to buy a KRONOs 61 and that sexy Trident. Unfortunately even though I have the money RIGHT NOW, I cannot bring it back. I live regularly in Mexico and I am right now in Stuttgart, Germany. I am living here for 2 months. I just cannot justify bringing the KRONOS, let alone the huge and heavy Trident. The only thing I want to try out and could not was a Waldorf Blofeld. Unfortunately when I got there the last blofeld was sold the previous day and who knows when the next one will arrive.

BTW the store´s name is Sound of Music, located in Olgastr. , Stuttgart, Germany.

[RedLeo]

Nice roundup. I'm going to cut this out and keep it

PS Glad you mentioned the store was in Germany. I've been to Monterrey and gigged there. It's a wonderful place , but I couldn't really imagine a music store like that...

[Gustavo]

Yeah, Stores in Monterrey have never had an OASYS, 2 have had Nord products and I think that at this point probably no one has the KRONOS. And there is one that has the Kurzweil PC3 series. But even if they do distribute and sell those keyboards, they never have them in stock, they are purely on an order basis.

The problem here is that while the people are nice, they either do not know how to put a headphone in and do not want you to try it OR refuse to go search for the power´s cable. Oh and I also had a problem in one store where I played for 40 minutes and they asked me to leave. I was about to buy an M50 but because of that I decided to order a limited edition green M50 on the internet. So yea, stores like those do not exist in Monterrey.